Kingdom of Berbera

The Kingdom of Berbera was a Somali state that existed in the Post-Classical Era and before the Middle Ages.

History
Berbera was previously known to be a port city on the coast of the Indian Ocean in present-day Somalia, serving as a trade hub between India and the Arabian Peninsula. In 769, the sayyid Yusuf of Berbera rose to power as King of Berbera with a head full of plans, and he sought to bring Islam to East Africa and establish his own empire. Although he was ethnically an Arab and a descendant of Husayn ibn Ali, Yusuf culturally identified as Somali, and all of his wives were African; his children included both white and black-skinned children, and he created a ruling dynasty of Afro-Arabs that came to be known as the "Hussainids" due to their status as sadah. The kingdom's first adversary was the neighboring Shirazid Emirate, a Bedouin dynasty that ruled over lands along the Strait of Mandeb; in 769, King Yusuf conquered the County of Zeila from the Shirazids, and he proceeded to conquer Harer in the following months, destroying the Shirazid Emirate.